Taiwanese class at Shi-Da
Today I had my first Taiwanese language class at Shi-Da. Shi-Da offers the class as one of the cultural classes. They also have classes in calligraphy, name chop engraving and a few others.
I have made sporadic efforts at studying Taiwanese but so far I haven't got beyond learning a few of the most common words and phrases. However, I think the language is important and useful and it is something that I really want to learn.
The teacher is Xiao Laoshi (蕭老師). She has a Master's Degree in Teaching Southern Min Dialect as a Second Language. As far as I know she is the only specialist Taiwanese language teacher at Shi-Da. She is very enthusiastic and I like her teaching style.
The first class used Xiao Laoshi's own materials. The class mainly covered phonetics. The Peh-oe-ji (POJ) romanisation system was used. POJ is sometimes referred to as Church Romanisation because it was originally invented by Presbyterian missionaries. The teacher commented indirectly that she uses this system because it is the most well known. There are other systems but they are not in common use.
A few of the students in the class already knew a little Taiwanese. Others knew none at all. There was quite a bit of material covered. As well as the phonetics we also learnt a simple conversation. For the complete beginners it might have been a bit overwhelming.
My only complaint is that the class is only once per week. I think it is disappointing that Taiwan's largest Chinese language school cannot offer more classes in Taiwanese.
I will write some more about the class and the Taiwanese language over the next couple of months.
Starting classes at Shi-Da
Reading about Taiwanese History
Taiwanese language learning materials
Article at culture.tw
Taiwanese Chinese
Posted: July 3rd, 2007 under Language learning, Languages in Taiwan, Pinyin & romanisation, Taiwan, Taiwanese (台語).
Tags: ntnu
Comments
Comment from Charlie
Time 3 July 2007 at 6:28 pm
If I don’t badly remember FJU Language Center 輔大語言中心 also offers Taiwanese classes, the teacher is 張京玫, I heard she is really good teaching Taiwanese. 
See Ya
Comment from Sebastian
Time 3 July 2007 at 7:32 pm
Hi David!
Great, you will have soo much fun at class! Xiao Laoshi is my teacher since the beginning and her teaching style is just fantastic!
Bye, Sebastian
Comment from Todd Alperovitz
Time 3 July 2007 at 10:49 pm
I’ve heard great things about that teacher, I wanted to take the class but unfortunately I’m too busy this summer. Have fun David!
Comment from Holly
Time 3 July 2007 at 10:50 pm
Wow, you’re a busy guy! I’ve recently taken an interest in picking up some Taiwanese, too. I’ll be interested to see if you come across any good online resources, although I know they are few and far between. Good luck!
Comment from Mark
Time 4 July 2007 at 3:16 am
This is really interesting. I had wanted to take that class myself when I was at Shida, but they didn’t even offer it that semester!
How many hours is the class?
Comment from David Reid
Time 4 July 2007 at 10:28 am
Mark, it’s only two hours a week. Not enough really. I would love to take a full-time Taiwanese class if Shi-Da offered one.
Comment from miao
Time 4 July 2007 at 11:18 am
Kudos to you for taking Taiwanese! I often lament that it is an unpopular and dying language. 
Thank you David for helping keep it alive.
Comment from David Reid
Time 4 July 2007 at 7:00 pm
I don’t think my limited efforts to learn the language will do much to save it. The most important thing is for the language to be given a more important place in Taiwan’s education system and for more people to become literate in the language (hopefully using romanisation!).
The language is hardly unpopular. Hokkien/Minnan is spoken by about 50 million people in Taiwan, China and various parts of Southeast Asia.
Comment from miao
Time 5 July 2007 at 1:27 am
That is very encouraging to hear. People always ask me if I’m from Singapore because I speak Taiwanese fluently. But when I ask my friends in Singapore what proportion of the population there speaks Hokkien, they say it’s the older folks- the younger generation tends to speak Mandarin. That was a real bummer, because this language is very dear to me.
You are right the language could benefit from a more prominent place in the education system. However, I don’t think that is possible due to current politics. Thanks for talking about this on your blog though. I didn’t even know Taiwanese was being formally taught!
Pingback from Daily Links – July 4th, 2006 | bent
Time 5 July 2007 at 1:36 am
[...] Shi-Da is offering classes in Taiwanese, but only once a week. I’ll definitely be looking into these (well, once I manage competency in Chinese). [...]
Comment from Mark
Time 5 July 2007 at 1:44 am
I guess the issue is that while the language would benefit from a more prominent place in the educational system, the educational system wouldn’t necessarily benefit from giving the language a more prominent place. Like it or not, Mandarin is the most spoken language in the world, and that’s the language that students will benefit from, here or in Singapore. More instruction in English, the uncontested second language of choice the world over, will probably help students more than spending that time on Minnanhua would.
Politics is about the only thing that could propel Taiwanese to a more prominent position in the schools.
Comment from John B
Time 5 July 2007 at 12:19 pm
I’m quite jealous! I wish the PRC would get over their “everyone has to speak Mandarin and Mandarin only!” mindset and allow universities to offer dialect courses. I would love studying Shanghainese while I’m living in the city.
Comment from David Reid
Time 5 July 2007 at 2:43 pm
Mark, I understand that from an educational viewpoint choices about what languages should be taught and when are very important. I still think a place can be found for Taiwanese without having negative outcomes.
As for politics, perhaps if the issue were less politicised some good policies and programs could be put in place. For all its Hoklo rhetoric I don’t think the DPP has really achieved as much as it could have.
Comment from somimi
Time 5 July 2007 at 4:03 pm
Nice! I was going to take that class. I hadn’t realized it had already started. In fact, I have been very much out of the loop on what ShiDa offers its students. I just saw the posters advertising the Turtle Island and Kenting trips. Definitely want to do one of those, but I could have easily never known about it!
I need to pay more attention to those bulletin boards. I’ve been spoiled by the email-bulletins my school back home employs…
Comment from Johan
Time 19 July 2007 at 8:35 pm
Mark, your “guess” is probably far from the truth. Have a look at http://www.johangijsen.blogspot.com; I hope it will make you think again. Thanks!
Comment from kite
Time 3 July 2007 at 6:00 pm
Yes, write more and share with us what you learn please!